Download EXCLAMATIVES 1. Meaning and use Exclamatives convey that

EXCLAMATIVES
1. Meaning and use
Exclamatives convey that something is surprising or noteworthy in some way
(Zanuttini and Portner 2003:47). Exclamatives must receive also a degree
interpretation: they involve the placement of an individual on the extreme degree
on a scale, according to some contextually determined value (Rett 2008).
Exclamativity can be expressed in different forms: a declarative sentence with a
high intonation like “you have a nice bike!”, with a wh-element like “what a nice
bike you have!”, a simple noun such as “the train!” or a simple particle “wow!”, or
also with a truncated clause: “what a pleasure!”.
2. Exclamativity in Chinese
The common way to express exclamativity in Chinese is by means of a declarative
sentence followed by a devoted final particle. In Mandarin the final particle is a/ya
啊／呀 (Chao 1968, Li and Thompson 1981, Zhū Déxī 朱德熙 1982, Chu 1998, 2002, Li
2006), in Cantonese is aa3 (Matthews and Yip 1994, Yóu Rŭjié 游汝杰 2003:229-231),
in Wenzhou is a (Fāng Xiăoyān 方小燕 2003).
(1) Mandarin
我就跑啊，跑啊，跑啊！跑到他們趕不上就好了啊！
Wŏ jiù
păo a,
păo a!
Păo dào tāmen
PRT
run
run
run till
găn-bú-shàng
jiù
hăo l’a!
catch-NEG-up
then good
1S
păo a,
then run
PRT
PRT
3PL
PRT-PRT
‘I ran and ran and ran! How nice it would be if I could run until they couldn’t
catch up with me!’
(From Chao 1968:804)
(2) Cantonese
Ni1 di1
ca4 zan1-hai6 zeng3
aa3!
This
tea
PRT
CL
really-be
tasty
‘This tea tastes really nice!’
(From Fāng Xiăoyān 方小燕 2003: 163)
(3) Wenzhou
peŋ1-dzɨ2-leŋ2 tshɨ7-tei3 tsaŋ1 hə3-ku5 a!
ice-cream eat-up
really feel-good
PRT
‘It feels so good eating the ice cream!’
(From Yóu Rŭjié 游汝杰 2003:229-231)
The final particles in the exclamatives in (1)-(3) are discourse markers whose
function is to mark the relevance of the utterance in which they occur for the
discourse context (Chao 1968, Chu 1998, Li 2006, Li and Thompson 1981).
Chu (2002) and Li (2006:69) point out that in Mandarin the particle a 啊 can
have low or high pitch. Li proposes that the sentence in (1) is interpreted as an
exclamative only if it is associated with a low pitch (see also Chao 1968:804). In
Wenzhou, the final particle a is basically toneless as a/ya 啊／呀 in Mandarin, and it
may display pitch variation when appearing in different types of sentences (Yóu
Rŭjié 游汝杰 2003, Li 2006).
Chinese can express exclamativity not only with final particles, but also with
degree adverbs and wh-elements, as in the following Mandarin sentences:
(4) 張三怎麼這麼高啊！
Zhāngsān
zĕnme
zhème
gāo a!
Zhangsan
how
so
tall
PART
‘How very tall Zhangsan is!’
(5) 他怎麼買那麼多書啊！
Tā zĕnme
măi
nàme
duō
shū
a!
3S how
buy
like-that
many
book
PART
‘How many books he bought!’
Examples (4) and (5) have different types of degree interpretations. The sentence in
(4) has a ‘gradability reading’ and the sentence in (5) expresses an ‘amount
interpretation’. In (4) the degree value is given by the wh-element zĕnme 怎麼 ‘how’
immediately followed by a degree adverb zhème 這麼 ‘so’. Zĕnme 怎麼 and zhème 這
麼 modify the adjective gāo 高 ‘tall’, indicating that Zhangsan is tall on the extreme
degree in a scale, according to some contextually determined value. In (5)
exclamativity, and the degree value associated to it, are expressed by a clause with a
slightly different syntactic structure, as compared to (4). The degree value is given
by three elements: zĕnme 怎麼 ‘how’, nàme 那麼 ‘like-that’ and the quantificational
element duō 多 ‘many’. Nàme 那麼 is a variant of zhème 這麼 (in (4)) and they seem
to be interchangeable without any relevant change in the interpretation of the degree
value. The word order in the exclamative in (5) is slightly different with respect to
the one in (4): while in (4) the interrogative zĕnme 怎麼 ‘how’ and the degree
adverb zhème 這麼 ‘so’ together directly modify the adjective, in (5) the
interrogative element zĕnme 怎麼 occurs to the left of the verb and the degree
adverb nàme 那麼 with the quantifier duō 多 immediately modify the noun shū 書
‘book’.
Importantly, both in the examples (4) and (5) the presence of the final particle a
啊 is optional. When the particle a 啊 is absent, the sentences are ambiguous
between an exclamative and a rhetorical question (“How come…?!”) interpretation.
However Mandarin displays a further type of exclamative in which the final particle
a 啊 is obligatory:
(6) 張三多麼高啊！
Zhāngsān
duōme gāo a!
Zhangsan
how
tall
PART
‘How very tall Zhangsan is!’
Duōme 多麼 “how” is an interrogative element that immediately modifies the
adjective 高 gāo “tall”. The final particle is obligatorily realized and unambiguously
yields an exclamative interpretation.
In the non-Chinese literature, some criteria have been proposed for identifying
exclamatives (Zanuttini and Portner 2000, 2003): (i) exclamatives cannot be
embedded under an interrogative predicate and cannot function either as questions
that can be answered, or as answers to questions; (ii) exclamatives are factive and
can only be embedded under factive predicates (Grimshaw 1979, d’Avis 2002); (iii)
exclamatives can be embedded under predicates that imply an extreme degree
(such as “it’s amazing”).
The Chinese exclamatives of the type illustrated in (4)-(6) seem to abide with the
criterion in (i).
(7) Q: 你兒子有多高？
Nĭ érzi yŏu
duō
gāo?
2s son have
much
tall
‘How tall is your son?’
A: *他多麼／怎麼這麼高啊！
*Ta duōme /
3S how
zĕnme zhème gāo a!
how
so
tall
PART
‘How very tall he is!’
(8) A: 他多麼／怎麼這麼高啊！
Tā duōme /
zĕnme zhème gāo a!
3S how
how
so
tall
PART
‘How very tall she is!’
B: *兩米。
*Liăng mĭ.
two
meter
*‘Two meters.’
However, the last two criteria (ii) and (iii) allow to tease apart two different classes
of exclamatives: those of the type exemplified in (4) and (5) and those of the type in
(6) (Badan and Cheng 2010a, 2010b). Example (9) shows that both types of
exclamatives can be embedded under a factive verb zhidao 知道 ‘to know’. In (10)
the two types of exclamatives are embedded under a non-factive verb. According to
the criteria in (ii), both the sentences should be unacceptable. However, (10b) shows
that, in some contexts, exclamatives of the type zĕnme zhème 怎麼這麼 can be
embedded under a non-factive verb.
(9)
我知道他多麼／怎麼這麼高啊！
Wŏ zhīdào
tā duō-me /zĕnme zhème
gāo
a!
1s know
3s how
tall
PART
how
so
‘I know how very tall he is!’
(10)
a.
*我想知道他多麼/怎麼這麼高啊！
*Wŏ xiăng-zhīdào tā duōme
gāo
a!
1S want-know 3s how
tall
PART
* ‘I wonder how very tall he is!’
b.
我想知道他怎麼這麼高啊！
Wŏ
xiăng-zhīdào tā zĕnme
zhème
gāo
a!
1s
want-know 3s how
so
tall
PART
‘I wonder how very tall he is!’
Also the criterion in (iii) uncovers some differences between the two types of
exclamatives. Example (11a) shows that when an zĕnme zhème 怎麼這-type
exclamative 麼 is embedded under a predicate that implies an extreme degree (such
as “it’s amazing/surprising”), the sentence is grammatical. When the embedded
exclamative is of the duōme 多麼-type, a decrease in grammaticality is observed
(11b).
(11) a.
我很驚奇他怎麼那麼高！
Wŏ hĕn
jīngqí
tā zĕnme nàme
1S very
be.surprised 3S how
so
gāo!
tall
‘It's surprising how very tall he is!’
b.
??/* 我很驚奇他多麼高啊！
??/* Wŏ hĕn
1S very
jīngqí
tā duōme gāo a!
be.surprised 3S how
tall
PART
‘It's surprising that how very tall she is!’
These discrepancies revealed by criterion (ii) suggest a distinction between
exclamatives that express pure exclamativity and exclamatives that are ambiguous
between an exclamative and a rhetorical-question interpretation. As for criterion
(iii), applied in (11), the decrease in acceptability of the duōme 多麼-type
exclamative, reveals that this type of exclamative do not necessarily entail a
surprise reading, as generally proposed in the literature on exclamatives (Zanuttini
and Portner 2003 among others). These issues are still open for future research (see
Badan and Cheng 2010 for a first investigation).
REFERENCES
Badan, Linda and Lisa L.-S. Cheng, “Scalarity in exclamatives in Mandarin Chinese”,
Paper presented at the IACL-18 & NACCL-22, May 20-22, Harvard University, 2010a.
Badan, Linda and Lisa L.-S. Cheng, “Surprise and non-surprise exclamatives”, Paper
presented at the Seminari del Laboratorio di Ricerca in Linguistica, Centro
Interdipartimentale di Studi Cognitivi sul Linguaggio, June 15, Universita` degli Studi di
Siena, 2010b.
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Lang Publishing, 1998.
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LINDA BADAN (Leiden Universiteit)